Purpose and
Scope of the Innovative Transportation Technologies Website

The purpose of this website is to provide information about unconventional (therefore innovative)
transportation technologies. Information about conventional transportation technologies is
already quite abundant but only a few people know about the technologies included at this
website. Some of these technologies are operational, some are under development and some
are still conceptual. It is intended to be an information resource for graduate students
in the Transportation Engineering and Urban Planning programs at the University of
Washington, in Seattle, and for other interested persons around the world.

Major attention is given to NON-AUTO technologies that are suitable for meeting Passenger
and Freight mobility needs within major metropolitan areas (i.e. intraurban travel). This is where the most acute problems of accidents,
congestion and air pollution exist today. In all of the worlds major cities, these
problems are severe and growing worse rapidly.

All of the technologies included share some important attributes. As
a group, the passenger systems are sometimes referred to as Automated People Movers(APMs). All are electrically propelled, all
are either fully- or partially-automated using some form of computerized control and
nearly all utilize some type of exclusive and elevated guideway. They all have the
potential to be financed, built and operated by either public agencies or private
companies or through some type of public-private partnership. Freight or goods movement
systems are referred to as Automated Freight Systems (AFS's)

The materials on passenger systems provided at this site have been
grouped into three broad categories. The first includes technologies in which the vehicle
is supportedfrom below by an elevated guideway. The
second includes systems in which the vehicle is suspendedfrom an elevated guideway. The third
category includes a variety of related topicsregarding the history, design, planning,
deployment, information resources and overall assessment of the technologies included.

Infomation about autonomous vehicles designed for
intra-urban applications is also included, particularly the
Mobility-on-Demand project at the MIT media
lab as well as links to some some lively blogs on various relevant
topics and issues.

This site should be of interest to people studying or
working in a wide variety of fields such as urban planning, environmental
protection/enhancement, real estate development, intermodal passenger and
freight transportation planning, intelligent transportation systems
planning, transit systems design and planning, architecture, auto-free
cities and sustainable transportation advocates. These transportation
systems offer the potential for reducing auto-dependence and urban
congestion over time which is a goal of great importance to the achievement
of more sustainable cities and economies - worldwide. They also offer a way
to help deal with the global climate change problem due to their energy
efficiency attributes.

Almost all of the information included has been provided by the
inventors, vendors or operators of these technologies - or from the published literature.
No guarantees of its accuracy or validity are provided. Inclusion on these pages should
not be interpreted as an endorsement of a particular technology. Opinions
are presented in two debate pages, one on Personal Rapid Transit, the other
on Dualmode concepts.

No evaluative remarks or critiques are included as there is ample
opportunity to discuss the attributes of these technologies on the two Debate pages (PRT
and Dualmode) included at the site. A google
group called Transport-Innovators exists for people who wish to discuss the
many technical and non-technical issues that confront the development and
deployment of innovative systems. It is open to all and
subscriber information is available at advancedtransit.org - the website of
the Advanced Transit Association (ATRA).

Contact information has been provided so that visitors can obtain
more detailed information directly from the inventors/vendors/operators of these systems.
This website is being continually enhanced, extended and updated. Ideas for improving it
should be sent to Jerry Schneider: e-mail jbsATpeakDOTorg